I have some suggestions for Mobile city leaders as they trim the budget. They are:

1) Reduce vehicle inventory.

2) Stop the take-home vehicle policy for employees working outside the city limits.

3) Fire police officers, or suspend them without pay, if they’re involved in an accident where negligence is obvious (exceeding speed limits, no alerts or signals in use, or clearly avoidable accidents).

Let the officers pay for damages, too, if they’re at fault.

4) Monitor those suspected of collecting city pay while employed elsewhere.

5) Forbid overtime.

6) Enact a pay freeze for all city employees until the economy improves.

7) Institute a four-day work week with a rotating schedule of Mondays and Fridays off on alternating weekends.

8) Households having more than one city employee should be restricted to one take-home vehicle.

9) Collect parking violation fees from all city employees who park government vehicles illegally.

10) Charge employees, including police, for city resources expended on personal business and part-time jobs.

All of these suggestions are related to areas of waste that are common knowledge, and which have existed unabated before and during the current economic crisis.

Additional taxes will not fix waste.

WILLIE HENRY REID

Mobile

If rewards are the same, why take risks?

With arguably the most important election in history less than a year away, I fear for our country.

Too many Americans are vilifying success, demanding equality and fairness.

How did we get here? The “unwashed masses” (i.e., the “99 percent”) wile away their time consumed with sports, social activities, phones and the Internet, rarely taking the time to examine their lives.

That results in resentment of those who did and demanding a share of their success, characterizing them as privileged, greedy and corrupt when they resist.

Impartially doling out rewards, without prejudice to effort, jeopardizes the American truism, “The greater the risk, the greater the reward.” If the reward is the same for all, who will take the risks?

Altruism aside, what will motivate some individuals to sacrifice while others do not?

Are some people so jealous, resentful and envious that they are willing to follow the failed social experiments of Russia, Greece and Europe, instead of American capitalism, which has thrived and created more wealth, opportunity and freedom than any other country in the history of the world?